The Three Stooges Collection (1934 - 1935) (Disc 1 of 2) (1934)

Starring: - The Three Stooges, Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard Genres: Comedy Classics, US Classics Origin: USA Certificate: G Languages: English Running Time: 340 min

synopsis

For those of you not familiar with the history of the Three Stooges, they made more films than any comedy team. A total of 190 shorts (or two reelers) and five starring feature films were produced from 1934 through 1965 at Columbia Pictures. They hold the record for the longest running studio association in Hollywood history. This was no accident. Simply put, The Three Stooges are funny. They produced a bunch of classic episodes. Of course, with 190 titles, there are some lemons in the barrel. However, with the first set of chronological shorts, each one has plenty of Stooge brilliance. Even their first short, "Woman Haters", an oddity done in rhythm, has enough mayhem to rise it above the "musical novelty" that it was originally billed.

The Stooges' career was drenched in irony. During their heyday of appearing in the classic short films, the Stooges longed to make feature length movies, fearing that the shorts were holding them back. But it was the Columbia shorts that kept them alive. Because of their running time (between 16-18 minutes), The Three Stooges shorts were like mini sitcoms. They weren't bogged down with dated musical numbers and gooey romantic sub plots like features starring Abbott and Costello and The Marx Brothers, for example. The pacing was that of animated cartoons and the Stooges were human cartoon characters. The short films they made 70+ years ago fit surprisingly well in today's video game generation of quick paced action, fast edits and short attention spans.

1934 Woman Haters / Punch Drunks / Men In Black / Three Little Pigskins

1935 Horses' Collars / Restless Knights / Pop Goes The Easel / Uncivil Warriors / Pardon My Scotch / Hoi Polloi / Three Little Beers